The Obama administration each month releases a
log of people who pass through the White House security system,
which also includes visits to the vice president's residence and
two executive office buildings. The database has more than
2.5 million entries for the period from January 2009 through
May. 31, 2012. The log may include some scheduled visits that did
not take place and exclude visits by members of Congress, top officials
and others who are not required to sign in at security gates.

Other persons in party

Obama's schedule

About the White House Visitors Logs

The logs contain the names of people who enter the security
gate at the White House, the Old Executive Office Building, the
New Executive Office Building and the vice president's residence.

The database was created for internal use and includes some
inaccuracies. The name of the person listed as receiving the
visitor, for example, is often a junior-level staffer responsible
for signing in the visitor, but is not necessarily the person
meeting with the visitor. The Washington Post standardized staff
names and matched them with the White House salary database to
include the employee's title.

The logs released to the public often do not include visits
by U.S. lawmakers and top administration officials who are not
required to sign in at security gates. If the arrival time next to
a visitor's name is blank, it may indicate that a scheduled
appointment was changed or the visitor did not show up.

Some visits may be removed by the administration under its
disclosure policy,
including personal visits to the first family and those
that, if disclosed, might compromise national security or law
enforcement. The administration can also withhold visits that are
deemed "particularly sensitive," such as interviews with potential
Supreme Court nominees.

The logs are released on a monthly basis and on a
three-month delay, so visits from January will be released in
April, for example. The Obama administration began releasing
visitor logs in September 2009 under the terms of a court
settlement. Some visits that took place between January and
September 2009 have been released selectively in response to
requests from the public.

The administration initially refused to provide records to
the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in
Washington and others who requested them, saying the logs were not
subject to the Freedom of Information Act. In July 2009, CREW
filed a lawsuit seeking access to the logs, ending in the
settlement creating the database of visitor logs. The group
Judicial Watch has brought an additional lawsuit seeking access to
all entries in the logs, without exceptions, dating to the
beginning of the administration.